UE NEWS Updates

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Auto Contracts a Step Forward for Entire Working Class

November 27, 2023
Pittsburgh
Statement of the UE Officers

The contracts won by the UAW at the “Big Three” automakers this year are a major victory for the working class. Workers engaged in creative, militant tactics and won not only significant economic improvements but also important measures to strengthen their union and exert control over production and investment decisions. Their victory makes it clear that if workers exercise the power to withhold their labor, they can shape the future, including the economic transitions necessary to address climate change.

Making Local 728 “A force to be reckoned with”

November 15, 2023
By Kevin White, UE Local 728 President

Local 728 President Kevin White writes, “Being a union officer, specifically one with a local that has achieved so much in such a short period of time, ranks among the greatest accomplishments of my life. While the responsibility of serving as a union leader can at times be as stressful as it is rewarding, anyone who’s ever bargained a contract knows there’s no other occasion where those peaks and valleys of emotions are so prevalent. That was the reality of the UE Local 728 Bargaining Committee for most of the month of October 2023.”

Feds Close Loophole, Cleaner Trains on the Way

November 15, 2023
Washington, DC

After months of pressure from grassroots advocates and UE members, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially gave states some power to regulate locomotive emissions in early November. This ruling clears the way for California’s In-Use Locomotive Regulation to be implemented, but the fight for jobs in the green economy and clean air in rail yard communities is far from over.

New Three-Year Contract at New Jersey Stepan Plant

November 15, 2023
Fieldsboro, New Jersey

Members of amalgamated UE Local 155 who work at Stepan ratified a new three-year agreement on November 1. Wages will increase four percent on November 16, then 3.5 percent and 3.25 percent in November 2024 and November 2025 respectively. Workers also received a $3,000 signing bonus, and the schedule premium paid to all workers who do not exclusively work days was increased from $1.80 to $1.95.

Local 610 Member Retires with 49 1/2 Years of Service

November 15, 2023
Photo of Local 610 member Bob Davis at work

On October 24, Wabtec laid off the most senior member of UE Local 610. Robert “Bob” Davis is 82 years old and had 59 and a half years of service with the company. He was hired on April 28, 1964.

Davis has never been late to work and only missed a few days of work for family emergencies. He was known for his devotion to family life, and for sayings like “Don’t be late, do your eight and hit the gate.”

Bernie Sanders: “We refuse to live in an oligarchic form of society”

November 15, 2023

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addressed the convention over Zoom on Monday morning. 

“Let me thank all of the UE workers for standing up year after year against corporate greed, and demanding that the working class of this country receives the respect and the dignity which it deserves,” he said.

“Decade after decade, the UE has been a leader in the struggle for economic justice. You have been one of the great unions in American history, and I am so proud to be saying a few words to you today at your convention.”

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